DAILY CHRONICLE
WEEKEND August 29-30, 2015 • $1.50
DeKalb................................21 Plainfield North...............35
Genoa-Kingston...................24 Mendota.................................19
Sycamore..........................31 Lincoln-Way West..........35
Hiawatha................................8 Marquette............................48
Brooks................................22 Kaneland...........................45
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Enterprise zone a long-term asset Investment expected to slowly attract business growth
By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The enterprise zone designation DeKalb County secured earlier this month won’t immediately transform the area to a more bustling business hub. Still, county officials are hopeful that businesses will come, although which ones and how soon are more questionable. “Economic development is often a long-term process. When a new investor be-
comes interested to a location/ site, it may take two to three years to prepare the development of an industrial park or commercial center [acquisition, zoning/entitlement, planning/engineering and installation of improvements],” said Paul Borek, head of the county’s Economic Development Corp. “After which is may take five to 10 years or
more to sell land sites or lease space in buildings.” The county was approved for a 15-squaremile-zone, with locations in Sandwich, Waterman, DeKalb, Paul Borek Sycamore and Genoa. At the onset, only 13 square miles of it are sched-
uled to be used, with the rest being reserved for growth and to accommodate any infrastructure or other issues that may arise down the road, Borek said. County Board members look forward to the zone not only attracting new businesses but potentially easing the local tax burden some property owners shoulder.
“We need to increase our tax base,” said DeKalb County Board Vice Chairman Tracy Jones, R-1st District. “We need some industry. I think the good thing about the enterprise zone is that’s what it’s striving to do.” How quickly it will bring industry, jobs and tax base expansion depends on how soon businesses can get going
within the zone. The areas that would be ready at Day One of the enterprise zone being effective would account for about one-eighth of the zone. The rest, according to Borek, could take years to prepare for use. “The areas where we could really move the needle include manufacturing, distribution and logistics, research and development, and entrepreneurship [including incubators],” he said.
See ENTERPRISE ZONE, page A5
GOP’s tough talk doesn’t square with U.S.-China
CORN FEST: OPENING DAY
By BILL BARROW The Associated Press
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Shotaro Nishida, 9, visiting from Japan, picks from a selection of prizes on the opening day of Corn Fest on Friday in DeKalb .
Food and fun a-plenty Corn Fest gets underway in downtown DeKalb If you go
By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Kennedy and Irish McCoy had wristbands Friday for an unlimited night of dips, drops, spins, twirls and flips at the opening day of Corn Fest. Kennedy, a third-grader at Brooks Elementary School, had just found her new favorite ride: the Tilt-a Whirl because, “It spins super fast.” Irish, a sixth-grader at Clinton Rosette Middle School, had already joined her sister on the Tilta-Whirl, the Jumping Jack drop tower, and bumper cars, but she couldn’t wait to get on Starship 3000, the nausea-inducing spinning UFO ride. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been on it, but that used to be my favorite,” Irish said. “I just like how it spins so fast.” Welcome back, Corn Fest. Through Sunday, Lincoln Highway between First and Fourth streets, and some side streets, are closed off to cars and filled with musical acts, amusement park rides, vendors and lots of food. It’s not just corn you get a
LIFESTYLE
A comeback The latest twist in textiles? A spinning resurgence / C1
What: Corn Fest 2015 When: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday Where: Lincoln Highway between First and Fourth streets didn’t stop a light crowd of families and friends from pouring into the annual celebration when opening day began at about 3 p.m. “Every single year it rains,” according to Carlene Butts, who has been involved with Corn Fest for five years, but this year’s she’s taking a leadership role as vendor chairwoman. “Usually on Friday it rains, and then the rest of the weekend ends up being beautiful,” Butts Kyle Miller, 25, of DeKalb eats an ear of corn on the opening day of Corn Fest on said. “Let’s just hope that’s what Friday in DeKalb. happens this weekend.” Hayley Hatfield just transstrong whiff of at Corn Fest, ei“The tacos are good, and the ferred to Northern Illinois Unither – it’s chicken, pork, funnel corn dogs, and the iced tea,” said versity from Belvidere and was cakes, corn dogs, deep-fried Oreos Andrew Schroeder, who traveled strolling among the vendors with and deep-fried Twinkies. To wash to DeKalb from Marengo in an her buddies Orlando Pinedo and it all down, you can choose from RV with his wife Charlotte and Brian Hagen. It was the first Corn root beer and other soda pop, lem- 1-year-old son Bryce on Friday, Fest for all of them. on shake-ups or even a beer gar- his birthday. See CORN FEST, page A5 den. A light sprinkle here and there
SPORTS
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Illini chaos
Safer now?
Beckman fired one week before Illini’s season opener / B2
Olson: We’re safer than ‘Wally and the Beav’ / A2
Advice ................................ C4 Classified........................D1-4 Comics ............................... C5 Local News.................... A2-4 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World.........A2, 5-10
CHARLESTON, S.C. – If there was ever a week for the Republican presidential candidates to talk tough on China, this was it: Spurred by the stock market’s wild ride, they lashed out at the world’s most populous nation. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker demanded President Barack Obama cancel an upcoming state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mike Huckabee said the next president should “build America’s economy, not China’s or Mexico’s.” Donald Trump said the U.S. economy needs to “do a big uncoupling pretty soon, before it’s too late.” It’s rhetoric that doesn’t always square with the realities of the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, said experts on America’s ties with China, even if it does make for nifty campaign sound bites. “When you’re in the early phases of the primary season, and you don’t have a lot in the way of foreign policy bona fides, a surefire applause line is to go to the extreme – and in the case of China that’s always a very easy thing to do,” said Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah and U.S. ambassador to China under Obama. No candidate went further than Trump, whose pledge to bring back to the U.S. the roughly 2 million jobs lost to China since 1999 is a centerpiece of his campaign. “Not only now have they taken our jobs ... but now they are pulling us down with them,” he said Monday amid a worldwide swoon in stock prices. But “uncoupling” the U.S. from China as Trump proposes would mean undoing the largest trade relationship in the world: $592 billion in goods and services were exchanged last year. While most of that consists of U.S. imports of Chinese products, China is still the United States’ third-largest export market. General Motors has sold more cars in China than in the U.S. every year since 2010. Apple’s second-largest market for its iPhones, iPads and computers is China. Said Apple CEO Tim Cook this week, “I get updates on our performance in China every day.” “It would basically be economic suicide to cut yourself off from the second-largest and fastest-growing economy in the world,” said Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Walker said Obama needs to have some “backbone” and call off the planned visit of China’s Xi next month – a response, he said, to China’s “increasing attempts to undermine U.S. interests.”
See GOP, page A5
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion..............................A11 Puzzles ............................... C4 Sports..............................B1-3 State ...................................A4 Weather ........................... A12